Meet Scamp the Tramp, the winner of the World's Ugliest Dog contest

Abigail Rosenthal, GateHouse Media

Monday

Jun 24, 2019 at 9:17 AM

This isn't your average dog show.

For Scamp the Tramp, being an "ugly" dog was his biggest asset this past weekend, where he beat out 18 other contestants to win the title of the World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California.

Scamp is a wiry-haired mutt with 2-inch long legs, beady eyes and a constantly drooping tongue. He was "found as a stray on the mean streets of Compton" in 2014, his owner Yvonne Morones wrote on the fair's site. There's a lot to love about Scamp, perhaps despite his outward appearance.

"When people first meet him, they go, ‘Oh, he’s kind of scary’ and then he wins them over with his sparking personality,” Morones told the Today Show.

Scamp the Tramp does more than just sit still and look ugly. He represents the Humane Society of Sonoma County in a kissing booth at events, works as a therapy dog at a senior living center and listens intently as a reading dog for first graders learning how to read (his favorite book is "Go Dog Go," according to Morones). Scamp is also "a loving uncle to dozens of shelter foster kittens, letting them play in his fur and giving them baths."

This was Scamp's fourth time competing, and Scamp is Morones's third dog to earn the crown. Her dog Nana won six years in a row starting in 1996.

Scamp the Tramp won $1,500 to spend on himself and a $1,500 donation split between the Humane Society of Sonoma County, Angels Fund and Compassion Without Borders.

Even if Scamp is the World's Ugliest Dog, he's perfect to Morones.

"All of us moms think our dogs are beautiful,” Morones told the New York Times. “We really believe our dogs are beautiful."